Know Before You Go: Part 3 of Experience the Journey of a Single Parent Before and After Divorce

One of the best reasons for finding a lawyer who specializes in family law Dallas TX is their familiarity with dividing assets following Texas community property laws. Woods, May & Matlock is a family law firm that can help you get through a divorce with a future intact by protecting your assets.

Welcome to the third part of Catherine’s journey through divorce and child custody in North Texas. In part one, we learned of her situation as a stay at home mom and in part two, we covered the critical step of listing out assets. Find out how the first negotiations went for Catherine and her attorney.

A Waiting Period

After Catherine’s husband filed his petition for divorce, Catherine had the opportunity to respond, detail property that wasn’t up for grabs and makes requests to the court in her response. We helped her go through her answers and filed the paperwork. Once both she and her husband have filed, the court requires a 60 day waiting period. While this long wait can feel frustrating, it’s the time to get negotiations and mediation done, as much as possible, so that the details of the divorce and child custody agreement can be settled outside of court.

Contested or Uncontested?

If you and your spouse disagree about the property claims in the divorce filing, your divorce is considered “contested” and has to be settled in front of a judge. Even in an uncontested divorce, where you both agree to the information in the petition for a divorce, you’ll need to wait the mandatory 60 day period, sometimes being required to take co-parenting classes or meet for negotiations.

For Catherine, even though she and her husband both wanted a divorce, they disagreed about some money she’d been given by her parents. That meant it would need to be settled over negotiations or mediation during this time or the judge would make the final call.

Strategy Wins

Having a plan gave Catherine confidence, and for her attorney, it gave insight and leverage into negotiations with her husband’s attorney. We knew what her husband wanted and could give him “small victories” over items that Catherine didn’t actually care about keeping, making more wiggle room for the things that did matter to her.

She was able to keep the money from her parents and that got dropped from her husband’s claim, making things easier to agree on thereafter. Cases can play out smoothly or come to stalemates where a lawyer who specializes in family law Dallas TX can help reach out to the other side and move things along.

Now What?

Catherine is still living in the family home without a job and taking care of the kids. She needs to decide if she wants to seek alimony, called spousal maintenance in Texas, as well as start thinking about a custody plan for the kids. Read our next post to see where her journey continues. If you’re going through a divorce, get help from a lawyer who specializes in family law Dallas TX from Woods, May & Matlock. Call us now for a free brief phone consultation at 972-387-9955.